Are there four Dodgers outfielders for three spots or two for one?

Veteran left-handed outfielders Carl Crawford, left, and Andre Ethier could be vying for playing time next season with Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig.

Veteran left-handed outfielders Carl Crawford, left, and Andre Ethier could be vying for playing time next season with Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Dilbeck

The Dodgers still have a math problem in the outfield, but you have to wonder if it will ultimately be the one so anticipated.

They still have four high-profile outfielders for three spots. Of course, they were expected to have the same problem last season after the emergence of Yasiel Puig. But because of various injuries, it happened one game all season.

But now all four expect to be healthy. And to play, naturally.

Matt Kemp made it clear he expects to be in the lineup each game, which would reduce this four for three to a three-for-two spots dilemma.

“I’m an everyday player,” Kemp said last weekend. “I play every day. I don’t want to even really want to talk about that because I’m trying to play every day. I’m not trying to get days off.”

If Kemp is the player he was in 2011, he will be an everyday player. He said his upper body strength is good and he’s been able to hit this winter, unlike last year when he was coming off major shoulder surgery. The bigger question now is how he comes back from off-season ankle surgery.

Likewise, if Puig is anywhere near the player he was the first 10 weeks of his career (.373 batting average, .436 on-base and .589 slugging percentages), there’s no way you sit him much. And then there were his last 42 games (.233/.319/.445).

Which could leave the two left-handed hitters -- Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford -- rotating for the third spot, particularly against left-handed pitchers.

Crawford is eager to head into spring, his surgeries of 2012 well behind him.